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Hello from Innsbruck, Austria!
I lost my dear old unlocked Vodafone BB 8310 two weeks ago during a hike in the mountains (it must have somehow found its way out the backpack during a rest and was switched off, so I couldn't locate it afterwards). Proably now a cow somewhere is using it as chewing gum, or the shepherd gets some weird ransom mails. Sigh.
So I walked into a T-mobile shop to get me a replacement and came out with a Bold. It was the last one they had out of 10 or so. Lucky
As we are preparing for two big industry shows in september and october in our company, the new Bold was quickly thrown into heavy usage.
after two weeks use I found the following points (I have to add that I use a company Vodafone Nokia E90 communicator from time to time were I enjoy the fantastic display and hate the bad keyboard, so there are some points to compare, and I was interested how the Bold would stand against the E90):
1) fast backup restore:
Backup restore of all the 8310 backup data with BB desktop software into the Bold 9000 was a blast. no hassle, no problems, just working within 2 minutes. The new BOLD was instantly a 1:1 copy of the data of the 8310. I could instantly continue working. AMAZING!!!
2) weak battery life:
With activated Wifi and Bluetooth and some phonecalls during the day, the Bolds battery is drained empty within less 8 hrs. The 8310s Battery lasted for about 1-1/2 days. The BOLDs battery life is a step back. And I had fully charged the battery before first use. Also charge needs longer than with the 8310 (but the bolds battery is of course bigger).
3) unstable bluetooth connections:
Never I had any problems with the 8310 and the original bluetooth sony car radio of my 07 ford focus wagon. it was like the Sony radio was made for the 8310. the 9000 however misses lets say each 2nd phonecall, quits the connection, sometimes does not dial at all, or does not recognize incoming calls. not good. I hope there is a software update soon.
4) the BOLDs built in webbrowser is very SLOW even with WIFI:
... and there is no choice between WIFI or 3G etc BEFORE one opens up a website.
the E90's browser is about twice as fast with 3.5G or WIFI, and before opening a website, the E90 asks if it shall be opened using WIFI or 3G (and which connection available). with Bold, I'd have to choose the standard browser in setup each time.
Is there a Opera Browser for BOLD ready yet?
5) Excellent display:
the Bolds display is a improvement to the 8310, however the icons are very hard to differentiate. Compared to the 8310's nice coloured icons which were easy to keep apart and looked like on a Computer, I really have a hard time recognizing the difference between the monchromed BOLDs icons, and finding the right application.
the 8310's icons were much better to separate when things had to go fast. hopefully there is soon a 8300 style theme for the bold for us old folks.
6) Some problems with contacts:
contacts application has some strange problems showing up contact names, when phonecalls come in.
if a contact has a assigned company name AND a last name, first name, sometimes when a call comes in, BOLD only shows the company name, not the first and last name. strange. never had that issue with the 8310. maybe I missed a option in setup...
7) HTML mails messed up:
email application has some problems with incoming HTML mails from outlook 2003. but it seems to depend on the machine where the mail comes from, XP or Vista or a Apple. email is btw much better than the E90's.
8) Calendar:
Calendar has been improved, as colours for different tasks (or even emails) can be chosen. however in Month view, there is still no display of those tasks (like a PALMs month view can do). But the BB's Calendar is so much better than the E90's anyway.
9) BOLDs new headphones:
the headphones look stylish but are not better than the 8300s. the headphones of the 8300 were better.
10) 2MP camera still no good:
the 2MP camera is no improvement, it is as bad as the 8300s and just for car accident reports. The E90's 3MP cam is much better and has a lot of options to use.
11) Keyboard:
still not sure about the keyboard. the BOLD's new keyboard is good and has a soft touch, but the 8300s was even as good. (nevertheless my all time favourite BB keyboard is the good old 8700v's).
12) Office:
First time that I can use Word to go, Sheet to go etc. The apps are nice and a step forward. but Nokia's QuickOffice Suite seems to be much easier to handle and much faster. Sheet to go had some problems with bigger Excel Sheets, Quickoffice could open without any problems.
13) Adobe PDF viewer:
Compared to the fast and easy PC style Adobe PDF LE viewer of Nokia's E90, the Blackberry PDF Viewer is still a pain to use. I hope it is replaced soon with Adobe PDF LE!!
Didn't have time yet to play around with the media manager, but that thing looks good. The sound of the built in BOLD speaker is really good.
After 2 weeks office use I must say that the BOLD is a impressive step forward (also in size).
but battery life, the slow browser needs a improvement!
What are your experiences with battery life?
Cheers
Christoph
PS: Vodafone Austria has delayed sales of their dedicated BOLD version, as they were not satisfied with the OS release quality of the Bold's they tested so far.Last edited by AustrianBoldie; 08-27-08 at 03:40 PM.
08-27-08 03:14 PM - Im finding the battery life to be very poor:
I leave my house around 7am (after charging all night)
BT is on
Wifi is off
on 3G
I would say i receive approx. 100 emails (send 10 t 15).
Send and receive approx 30 texts
Browse 30 minutes
BB Messenger 30 minutes
Talk 1hr to 1hr30
Battery lasts me until 6pm maximum!
My curve would go until 11pm!
Thinking of switching off 3G
08-29-08 06:20 AM - Hi Austrianboldie
Welcome I am still new to Blackberry myself, my first blackberry will be the Bold.
I am interested in your post mainly because I have used Windows mobiles for years aswell as recently using the N95 8gb and this week been getting used to the Nokia E71. (Still looking for my Sim- free bold)
I am glad you mentioned the Web browsers in your comparison, I have got used to the Symbian browsers on the Nokias. I have played with the Bold in a shop and was thinking that I may have to take time in getting use to browser.
Also I found it useful that you mention about the way it handles pdf files, tend to use those a lot.
Thanks for such a detailed post.08-31-08 06:31 AM
